What is HIM?

Welcome

Healthcare technology and other advances are creating both great opportunities and new challenges around the world. Many countries are facing a shortage of healthcare workers at the same time that they are tackling the need to advance their systems and infrastructure.

Brasil was identified by the World Health Organization as one of 27 countries working to improve health professional education by modernizing curricula and educational competencies.

Brasil’s Sistema Único de Saúde (SUS), the Unified Health System, has improved access to care and invested in the expansion of human resources and technology in health care. With changes such as socioeconomic and demographic trends, according to Frost & Sullivan, significant opportunities for healthcare in Brasil are growing.

Health care spending in Brasil is expected by Deloitte to rise by an annual average of 6.8 percent from 2013-2017.

Total spending on health care is projected by the Economist to rise to $255.5 billion by 2017

In 2013, Brasil launched a program to recruit 6,000 physicians and other professionals in the coming three years as noted by the World Health Organization.

To ensure that a workforce ready to manage this transformation in healthcare is available, comprehensive healthcare education and workforce strategy is needed. To support the global development of a trained HIM/HIT workforce, AHIMA is convening a Global Healthcare Workforce Council (GHWC) that will establish a curriculum of core knowledge that is both flexible and consistent, providing a basis for the profession to be recognized by government, higher education, and employers in any country. Click for more information on the GHWC.

Evolution of Technology

Health information and health information technology (HIT) is becoming increasingly prevalent in all parts of the world and is shifting the way that care is delivered, diseases are reported, and information is tracked. There are many reasons to adopt health technology and support its development and ongoing use. The Institute for Healthcare Improvement has published a framework called the Triple Aim that outlines how technology and data can be leveraged to:

Reduce Costs of Healthcare

Improve Care Delivery (Quality and Satisfaction)

Support Overall Population Health

With the global expansion of technology comes a need for a well-trained workforce with the knowledge and skills to not only implement new systems, but also provide governance and protection of the data being collected and used.

Information only inspires confidence when it is shown to be secure, accurate, and accessible by the right people at the proper time. Once this confidence is inspired, informatics – or the application of technology to data to create actionable knowledge – can be used to track progress, choose the right treatment method, or make business decisions that allow healthcare organizations to differentiate themselves from their competitors.

Because of all that is required to make technology function effectively and ensure trusted information, human resources are the most critical asset of healthcare organizations today.

All healthcare systems, regardless of how well financed or organized, need sufficient numbers of skilled workers to meet the needs of implementing health information technology systems and getting the most out of that investment.

What is HIM?

Health information management (HIM) is the practice of acquiring, analyzing, and protecting digital and traditional medical information that is vital to providing quality patient care. HIM professionals are dedicated to the effective management of patient information and healthcare data needed to deliver quality treatment and care to the public. HIM professionals are highly trained in the latest information management technology applications and understand the workflow in any healthcare provider organization from large hospital systems to the private physician practice. They are vital to the daily operations management of health information and electronic health records.

Although the profession continues to evolve over time, becoming less paper-based and increasingly electronic, the role of HIM is critical in the successful implementation of electronic health records (EHR), ensuring that providers, healthcare organizations, and patients have access to the right health information when and where it is needed while maintaining the highest standards of data integrity, confidentiality, and security. HIM professionals work with providers across the healthcare industry and beyond, serving in analytical, project management, healthcare system management, governance, and other roles. HIM professionals:

Ensure the accuracy, usefulness, integrity and protection of patient health information throughout healthcare and healthcare-related institutions

Oversee the input and classification of medical data from a variety of sources into patient records for use by providers, researchers, agencies, and others

Combine the use of health information technology (HIT) with secure, accessible data to apply informatics to clinical decision making

Assess and strategically plan for healthcare data and information needs to both manage and improve the quality of clinical and business operations

Manage operational and technology-related projects related to HIM

Enhancing individual patient care through timely and relevant information is one of the primary goals for the health information management profession. Quality and trustworthy information is also important. In fact, accurate patient billing and reimbursement to providers centers on competent health information management. By compiling and analyzing reliable data from many patients, effective health information management can help identify ways to better utilize resources, reveal public health patterns, and lead to establishing new medical treatments.

Reliable health information is critical to patient outcomes and quality healthcare. Informatics –the application of technology to data to create actionable knowledge, and part of HIM – can be used to track progress, choose the right treatment method, or make business decisions that allow healthcare organizations to differentiate themselves from their competitors.